Is it a good enough mutally beneficial deal?

[JMISBEST]

The Players in my group that are taking a few months break are, when we start again, planning to get Drinax loads of ships and planets with a mutually beneficial deal and I want to know if my fellow GM's think its a good enough deal?, I do but I value other GM's opinions

Basically Inurin and Sperle provide Food, Bryni provides ships, ship-yards and solder, Drinax, Neumann and Tech-World provide Tech, Falcon, Albe and Neuman provide workforce's for all the planets and we break Acrid and Argona free from The PRQ and they provide the materials

So Drinax gets the worlds of Inurin, Sperle, Bryni, Tech-World, Falcon, Albe, Neuman , Acrid and Argona and nets around 220 million part-time soldiers equipped at TL 8 to 10 and around 24 million fill-time soldiers equipped at TL's 9 to 12 and nets a defensive Navy of 88 ships that from 200 tons to 700 tons. Is their anything that in the short-term that can go wrong?

 

[M J Dougherty]

In short, everything.

This is a deal between world governments. You're probably looking at it from the point of view of what vast resources it brings in and which three skill rolls are reasonable to set it up.

More likely, a deal llike this will require years of negotiation, some missions to solve problems for prospective members to persuade them, maybe some skullduggery to influence the decision making process.

Creating an alliance like this is an enormous undertaking which really should be the focus of months of gaming. Governments do not lightly commit themselves to political change or obligations; they need far more potent reasons than a list of benefits and a diplomacy skill check.

I would suggest taking a good hard look at what each world has and what it needs - and what it wants. Consider the influence of other worlds, internal problems and relations to date between these powers. Consider also how reactionary some societies can be, and the agendas of their politicians.

That should give you some idea of how many problems need to be solved. Even if each one is neatly wrapped up in a single mission/game session, you can get months of adventures out of this endeavour and at the end of it the players will have really achieved something.

Alternatively, 'Press X to WIN'.

 

[atpollard]

There is a story from the 1900's that I like that illustrates what can go wrong even when nothing goes wrong ... just because people are involved. The US Army purchased new revolvers from two promising manufacturers, the .38 colt and the .38 Smith & Wesson. Each was made for a slightly different length bullet. The S&W was a better revolver since it was self-ejecting and could be quickly reloaded one handed. It was reported that a soldier could reload his entire S7W revolver in the time it took to reload one round in a Colt Revolver. On the other hand, the Colt revolver had a more powerful bullet. As one would expect, one day a crate of Colt bullets was delivered to a unit armed with S&W revolvers and they were unusable. Since the Colt could fire either the .38 Colt or the .38 S&W bullet, the Army chose to adopt the Colt as the standard weapon and the .38 S&W as the standard round ... giving them a weak round in a gun that was slow to reload. The worst of both.

What happens when differences in standards and doctrine and "how things are done" create unexpected issues between your worlds.

 

[PsiTraveller]

Surprisingly I am going to come out on the side of JMisbest in this case.

Look at the Cloak and Dagger section of the Demon's Eye adventure. Tech-World is willing to flip allegiance in exchange for the deal just described. The adventure says they could make their own boats in a few months, but that is too long to wait. So a world changing shift in politics is going to happen in less than 90 days. That's the hook for the adventure, make an alliance for food and raw materials, ships and protection and get a few million robots on your side.

Now Tech-World is an oddity given the small population of actual people, but the needs of the world actually make the alliance listed a good idea.

And the very meta task rolling to form an alliance is the last chapter of the adventure. You list all planets and compare policy numbers and make a skill check in the Rebirth of the Kingdom chapter. Granted the mention of missions performed is mentioned in the previous chapter, but that is to move the attitudes of the planet. The alliance building section of the adventure is a series of Skill checks. At the end of it you have your kingdom. So Jmisbest is not really coming up with something completely alien in this example, which given his post history is in itself a surprise. This example is just bringing the Finale mechanic forward in the adventure.

That being said there could well be a whole series of adventures about just HOW the players get to shape policy. On the other hand, given King Oleb's mercurial behaviour he might well give the group diplomatic credentials and authority to cut deals.

 

[Condottiere]

Dilpomacy can be complex, and tends to require groundwork and background, though perhaps not prepatory work for a specific agreement, if the political bodies and decision makers can come to an agreement on the spot, thinking they're all fully aware of the implications and advantages, and have the authority, willingness and capability to spend political capital.

When it comes to the military aspect, the lender certainly doesn't want to find out that what he lent out is suddenly being used against him.

Probably easier to imagine in a fantasy setting, where alliances can be sealed by marriage.

 

[Hakkonen]

Probably easier to imagine in a fantasy setting, where alliances can be sealed by marriage.

Fantasy? "Feudal" is the word you're reaching for, and I imagine a number of alliances in the TU have been sealed by marriage.

 

[JMISBEST]

Here's A Update on Drinax 2 months or 5 in-game years later. Now what do you think?

Planets wise it has The Worlds of Drinax, Asim, Inurin, Sperle, Bryni, Tech-World, Falcon, Albe, Neuman, Acrid, Argona, The 4 worlds of The Senlis Feodorate, Simok, Cordan and Torpol in it

The partially mutually beneficial Defence and partially mutually beneficial Defence Deal is follows

Initially Inurin and Sperle provide Food, Bryni provides ships, ship-yards and soldiers, Drinax, Neumann and Tech-World provide Tech, Falcon, Albe and Neuman provide workforce's for all the planets and we break Acrid and Argona free from The PRQ and they provide the materials and minerals

And

Later The 4 worlds of The Senlis Feodorate, Simok Cordan and Torpol gain the protection of The New Kingdom of Drinax and have less to fear from The Seemingly genuine 2nd Treaty of Fish and Simok also ends its civil War, avoids The Wrath of The Imperium and has its Pharaohs Fertility restored, thus preventing the end of his line

Ships wise it has A Starguard of 79 Ships that range from 100 tons to A 2,600 ton custom Build Drinaxian Frigate, A Regional Fleet of 131 Ships that range from 100 tons to 2,000 tons, my Pcs 26 Ships that range from 100 tons to A Custom build 3,200 tons Carrier they nicked in A Game of Shadow and Sun Variant and Hroal and Vallis who both have 34 ships that range from 200 tons to 2,300 tons

Soldiers wise it has around 838,822,800 part-time and around 97,422,600 full-time

 

[PsiTraveller]

2 months real time to 5 years in game time.
So do you just set up a scenario and then say ok 3 years have gone by, anything else you want to do? Or are you playing a version of Pocket Empirs where each turn is a year long?

How do you just move something along 5 years?

 

[JMISBEST]

2 months real time to 5 years in game time.
So do you just set up a scenario and then say ok 3 years have gone by, anything else you want to do? Or are you playing a version of Pocket Empirs where each turn is a year long?

How do you just move something along 5 years?

Not really but were're very busy now and are only guaranteed to all be able to meet once a month

So I decided that as Drinax has been reborn a few weeks past 2 decades earlier then it has been in any prior campaign of mine and I simply ignore most stuff and for that once a month we do a all day session that covers around 18 real life hours or around 1 and a half real-years

That's 3 years of gaming their and to ensure that nobody misses out I ensure that during the other 2 years in that 2 month period theirs either very little if any trouble the planetary navies can't handle and if its a bigger threat then normal that Oleb or Rao decided that its almost but not quite a big enough threat to warrant bothering The Legendary Heroes of Drinax The Pcs now are and will be remembered as for centuries after their deaths